Enduring problems with A1200 busboards

[Eco]

I have two a1200 zorro II busboards (Z4 and Micronic) but I've been unable to get my CV64/3D and Xsurf II to work with either of them. Do you know if there are any recorded incompatibilities with these cards and the busboards? Is it true that the Z4 renders the first detected Z2 card inoperable, forcing you to use a dummy card?

I thought the CV64/3D would especially like the Z4, since it has the double speed option for two of the Z2 slots, but this does not appear to be the case. I'm going nuts over the repeated Picasso96/Cybergraphx 4.0 installations and OS 3.9 copying..

The cards show up nicely and in working state in the startup menu, almost regardless of which slot they're in, which busboard is used, or if both cards are connected at the same time. It's just that the resources of the cards cannot be used from the WB.

For CV64/3D, both Picasso and Cybergraphx pretend no card has been installed. As for Xsurf, the xsurf.device cannot be opened, the xsurftest program does not find the card, and the IDE devices are not detected even thought the IDE drivers are put in the expansion folder and binddrivers is executed.

Apart from nothing zorro-ish working, the system is stable and good for a lot of WHDLoading. The Xsurf came back from Jens a few months ago, he certified that it is totally working on his lab computer. The CV64/3D I cannot vouch for, but I did buy it as working on Ebay. It looks totally pristine, and it's the DCE manufactured one.

The rest of the system hardware is as follows:

A1200 2.0b
Blizzard 1230 IV (no scsi) with 64mb mem. (maprom used)
Scanmagic SD/FF
Oldie HD & CD drive connected via the IDE port, no buffered interface used.
With Z4 only: Lyra keyboard interface (Micronic has its own)

Help!  :-o

[miles]

Has the 2b board had timing fixes done?  What power supply are you using and does the Z4 board have a power connector on it?  As the boards show up on the early startup menu there can't be much wrong, a jumper setting?

[Brian]

My MicroniK Z2 bussboard dropped 1 card after every reset the computer made, especialy irritating with OS3.9 installed as it do the reset thing. I suspect power failure due to long power cables to the Z2 bussboard as with just 1 zorro board installed it works ok.

(looking in early startup turbo and my 2 zorro cards would be there... reset and one would be gone, reset again and all (but my turboboard would be gone)).

[Eco]

Nope, I haven't had timing fixes done on the board. Is there some sort of test I can do to see if this is my problem? I've done some limited testing without the accelerator plugged in, and at least the Xsurf seems to continue misbehaving without it.

I have a 250w AT power supply, and both busboards get powered through their power connectors - no power is supplied in the standard a1200 power plug (would be a bad idea..). I have made a special connector for the Micronic busboard, since it has a custom connector; the Z4 takes the normal P8/P9 connectors which AT PSUs have.

The busboards do not have any special power requirements, do they? Just plug in the power and you're set? No additional +5 wires required or anything?

Additional note on power: If I plug in a BPPC, I get 4.95 volts on the +5 rail on the card. The system is also totally stable with the BPPC.

[Framiga]

Hi Eco

have you read this?

"Operation of the CyberVision64/3D in Amigas with Zorro-II bus
interface (A2000 etc.), which are equipped with a 68030 CPU or
68040 CPU, require the installation of Enforcer, which is
available on AmiNet." . . .don't ask me why!

Then . . have you tryed to disable MapRom?

Have you forced the CV643D in ZorroII mode?

AFAIK even the order on which the boards are inserted, is important in some Zorro backplane.

Ciao

[Eco]

Yes, "run >NIL: enforcer" runs after setpatch. Unfortunately it did not make the card work, but I have read that it is required.

I have tried to disable the maprom, also no difference.

How can I force the CV64/3D into zorro 2 mode? It does not have any jumpers, it's supposed to autodetect?

I've switched the order of the cards around may times, taken it one at a time, and usually only tried them individually since neither works. I have cleaned all connectors with IPA and re-built the tower two times, everything works fine except for the zorro cards.

Maybe I should degrade back to OS3.5 or 3.1? Could it help?

[Framiga]

Hi

go to

http://www.vgr.com/picassoiv

and see the "PicassoIV Jumper Settings" section.

Ciao

EDIt- take a look to the FAQ also

[Eco]

The FAQ is really impressive, but not much useful info for my DCE-made Cybervision 64/3D. And I really don't have any jumpers on the card.

Good info on the Z2 fast mode though.. I never knew it was a dirrrty hack  :-o

[miles]

For the 2b timing fixes have a look here:

http://ftp.uni-bremen.de/aminet/dirs/hard_misc.html

http://ftp.uni-bremen.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/hard/misc/A1200_fixes.lha

Short:    All A1200 motherboard modifcations
Author:   ICStedman@techie.com (Ian Stedman)
Uploader: ICStedman@techie.com (Ian Stedman)
Type:     hard/misc

A complete guide (text and pictures) of all the A1200 motherboard modifications.
It includes the timing fixes and wire mods done to some later 2B motherboards.

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk

[Eco]

Has anyone fixed a zorro 2 busboard problem (like mine) by making these modifications? :-?

Maybe I should get another a1200 mobo, preferably of the earlier revisions. I could use a second one since I have two accelerators and two busboards.

[miles]

Eyetech states

Quote from website: In general these 1.D.4 & 2.B defects only make themselves felt when the A1200 is expanded by the addition of an '040 (or above) accelerator, high performance IDE hard drive/CDROM subsystems, Zorro slots or I/O expanders (PortPlus etc). Often any one such accessory will work, but two or more will not work in combination. Typical symptoms are an accelerator exhibiting instability problems, a graphics card failing to be recognised or a CDROM failing to show disk icons.

http://www.eyetech.co.uk/addbar.php?Address=/PRODUCT/PAMAC/AMIGA002.HTM

It might be the problem, but you will only know by doing the mod .  It looks to be a hardware problem and not software.

[Stedy]

Hello,

Can you try running the system without the accelerator installed?

Try booting to an early startup-menu and 'boot without startup-sequence' then run Sysinfo, Scout or similar to see if your Zorro boards show up.

My Apollo 1240 refused to boot (black screen) until I did the timing mods.

Ian

[Eco]

(One motherboard switchout later..)

I'm now running a revision 1.D1 1200, and the XSurf has suddenly started working! It passes the xsurftest and everything seems in order.

Too bad I encountered a bit of Genesis weirdness, or I would have been writing this mail on the miggy. Genesis would not save its settings.. some protection flag thing?  :-?

However, the Cybervision 64/3D is still not working. If I plug it in, it will appear in the expansion list as a Zorro III card with an incorrect manufacturer and product ID. One would think that it is not properly detecting the Z2 mode, but perhaps my 1230 IV is preventing autoconfig from doing its thing properly? Surely 1230 IV should be compatible with the card??

I'll be unable to work more on the miggy for a few days, but feel free to theorize on what could be the problem with the CV64/3D.. Here are a few things to think about..

-In Zorro II systems, Enforcer must be running (this is ok, runs right after setpatch)

-CV64/3D needs 4 megs of autoconfig memory space to work (unknown if this is OK, maybe the accelerator is causing a problem? Must remove accelerator to check.)

-CV64/3D compatible with Micronic Z2 or the Z4 busboard?

[amiga1260]

A friend of my has a Micronik Zorro 3 board. He also had a X-surf, but he couldn't get it work. But the Cybervision 64/3d card works well on his board. I don't the revision of his motherboard. He has a Blizzard 1260.

Check the jumper settings and try the video card in another machine like A2000. Maybe your card is broken.  

[odin]

FWIW I have a Z2 busboard on my A1200 (dunno the rev, I think it's an AT mobo), used it with an AriadneII card and BlizPPC/BVis for years without problems. I haven't had any other cards in it though.